A Saint of Georgia

Resolution

The following resolution was unanimously passed by the 190th Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia on February 12, 2011 meeting at the Rainwater Conference Center in Valdosta, Georgia. A nearly identical resolution passed unanimously in November 2014, at the 193rd Convention.

TITLE: Deaconess Anna Ellison Butler Alexander

SUBJECT: To secure recognition by The Episcopal Church of Deaconess Alexander as a saint of the Church, with a designated feast day.

WHEREAS, Deaconess Anna Ellison Butler Alexander is recognized as a saint of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia; and

WHEREAS, Deaconess Alexander has a feast day set aside in the calendar of the Diocese of Georgia; and

WHEREAS, Deaconess Anna Ellison Butler Alexander, along with Hattie Forester Stafford and Pierce Butler Alexander founded Good Shepherd Episcopal Church September 9, 1894 at Penton’s Hill for former enslaved Africans; and

WHEREAS, Deaconess Alexander founded the Good Shepherd Parochial School in 1902, and she proclaimed in her treaties on education that “knowledge is the watchword” and encouraged many of her students to further their educations at St. Paul College in Virginia, St. Augustine College in North Carolina, Voorhees College in South Carolina and Fort Valley State University in Georgia; and

WHEREAS, Deaconess Alexander directed the St. Cyprians School in Darien, Georgia and promoted collaborative academic relationships between Good Shepherd, Pennick, Georgia, St. Cyprians, Darien, Georgia and St. Athanasius, Brunswick, Georgia; and

WHEREAS, she was consecrated deaconess in 1907; and

WHEREAS, the diocese segregated Deaconess Alexander’s congregation in 1907, not inviting African-American congregations to diocesan conventions until 1947; and

WHEREAS, it was not until the 1950’s that a woman set aside as a deaconess was recognized as being in deacon’s orders; and

WHEREAS, Deaconess Alexander ministered to Pennick and other Glynn and McIntosh County communities for 53 years;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED this 190th Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia recommends and encourages a resolution be presented to the General Convention of The Episcopal Church in 2012 to recognize Deaconess Anna Ellison Butler Alexander as a Saint of The Episcopal Church through adding her to the calendar in Holy Women, Holy Men; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED this convention of the Diocese of Georgia affirms and endorses the creation of a feast day for Deaconess Anna Ellison Butler Alexander to bear witness to the role of women and African-Americans in the history of the Church and calls on the Diocese to assemble appropriate materials online to assist the General Convention in considering this resolution.

Respectfully submitted:

The Rev. Deacon Marty Meuschke
26 Oct 2010

About Deaconess Alexander

Deaconess Anna Ellison Butler Alexander (1865-1947) was born to recently emancipated slaves on Butler Plantation in McIntosh County, Georgia. She became the only African American set aside in the order of deaconess in The Episcopal Church.

In 1998, Bishop Henry Louttit, Jr. named her a Saint of Georgia by the Diocese of Georgia with a feast day of September 24.

In 2011 and 2014, the Diocese of Georgia passed resolutions calling on the General Convention of The Episcopal Church to recognize her feast day through inclusion in its Holy Women, Holy Men. The General Convention moved the feast to study by the Standing Committee on Liturgy and Music in 2012 and then approved her feast be added to A Great Cloud of Witnesses (the successor to Holy Women, Holy Men) at its 2015 meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Standing Committee on Liturgy and Music voted to recommend that the Episcopal Church add Deaconess Alexander to Lesser Feasts and Fasts (Major Feasts are those like Christmas and Easter). A vote on that larger recognition for this Saint of Georgia will come during the General Convention meeting in Austin, Texas, 5-13, 2018.